Ugh....cheesecake

Sorry for the biased and unpleasant title. But god, I hate cheesecake. I thought, maybe I'll like it this time? Maybe if I make it, it will be different? No. No. No. NO. It was worse. Much, much worse. I could barely stomach the smell while making them let alone force myself to take a bite of that abomination. It could've had something to do with being hungover from the hot cocktail party but regardless, I don't think I would've done well with them even if I was totally well. To be fair, many that tasted them did enjoy them, and even those that don't like cheesecake (perhaps less so than myself) liked them, so that was a triumph. They were quite pretty (thanks to Martha's minions). I can't comment on the taste, only relay to you what criticism I got. I find myself totally betraying the wise words of one of the greatest cooks ever: Julia Child. She always said to never criticize your food when you serve it. Why do I always do this? I guess I just always want it to be the next greatest thing I've ever tasted. But, I am quite honest in saying if something is good or not. At least I'm not the one who came up with the recipe? Not always....

So, yes, they were pretty, and yes, many said they tasted great, but some said that the texture was a bit off. And some some said that they weren't sweet enough. There really wasn't that much sugar, so probably add a lot more. Perhaps double. But, what do I know. I don't even know what cheesecake is supposed to taste like. I do know however, that the technique for the top is something any cheesecake would be glad to adorn itself with. You blend up about a cup of raspberries (or any fruit), strain them so you remove the seeds, add some sugar and put a few drops on each cheesecake and then with a toothpick, swirl it around so it makes, a well, swirly design. What more can I say?

So instead of making one big cheesecake (gross), I made a dozen cupcake sized ones with graham cracker crust. This part, I'm ok with. Crush up some graham crackers, add some melted butter (yum) and press a bit in to the bottom of each cupcake well. Bake for 10 and add your cream cheese mixture (gross). Then top with the raspberry sauce (so good on waffles the next day), swirl, and bake. Word to the wise, I also made tiny cupcakes and cooked the crust for the same amount of time and they burnt completely, so watch them and only bake for like 5 minutes.

Also, if you're like me and have a total aversion to cream cheese and don't understand that it is a dairy and needs to be refrigerated, take this as a lesson learned: refrigerate the cheesecakes after it's cool. Not saying I didn't do that.....

I'll never understand you cheesecake lovers. But I will make it for you. Begrudgingly.

The recipe: http://www.marthastewart.com/article/cheesecake

Hot Cocktail Party Treats

A couple weekends ago we had a hot cocktail party and of course I had to make some desserts. This wasn't one of my better ideas because all the drinks were so overly sweet that not even I could take a single bite of one my sweets. Way too much sugar. They got eaten soon enough though. I went all Martha Stewart on this one. You know, I always think that her stuff is going to be the best because it just seems with all the thousands of minions she has coming up with ideas and taste testing everything, that her recipes would just blow everything else away. I've come to find this is not true....all the time anyway. While she does make some seriously good looking things, I've found that, yes, they are ALWAYS good looking, but not always as good tasting as you expect. Most of the times she comes half way. So it's kind of a toss up. A toss up I'm always willing to make though for some reason. I'm so brainwashed by the gorgeous pictures that I just think, man, this MUST be the best chocolate cupcake recipe there is?! It just has to be. In my case, it was gingerbread cupcakes and chocolate sandwich cookies.

Both recipes were relatively easy to make. Nothing out of the ordinary. My main problems and compliments with each are as follows. The gingerbread cupcakes took some getting used to. If you like not-so-sweet desserts, which many do (weird...) this is a good one. It is intense and SUPER molassesy. I mean, like there is 1 cup of molasses in the batter. If you've ever made anything with molasses, a little goes a long way, so this was a ton. I was shocked. Also, there is a ton of ginger in it too. So mostly, they just tasted like gingery molasses. Maybe not your thing? Not really mine either. I did warm up to them after a couple though. Like I said, they take some getting used to. However, they looked so pretty with a little white buttercream piped on top to look like a snowflake and then dipped in shimmering sugar. You can't go wrong with that. Not to mention, the beautiful display I used that I got for my birthday. So pretty!

Gingerbread cupcake recipe: http://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/gingerbread-cupcakes

The chocolate sandwich cookies turned out different than I expected as well. First, I thought they were going to be more bite-sized like in the picture, which I can only blame on myself because I was the one that distributed the dough. It was fun though because you put little balls of dough on your baking sheet and then press them down into a disk with the bottom of a sugared glass. Makes them sparkly and a little bit sweeter. However, the cookies came out too crunchy and hard for my taste. I didn't over-bake them, quite the opposite. If anything, I under-baked them. So if you like your cookies crunchy, these are good for you. The recipe book I used (Cookies-Martha) is so cool because it divides the recipes into the different cookie textures i.e. crunchy, soft and chewy, crumbly, rich and dense, etc. Pretty good thinking there minions. I can't recall, but if these cookies weren't in the crunchy section, they should've been. The filling surprised me as well because it came out almost exactly like the Oreo filling, which depending on your predilections, could be a good or bad thing. I thought it was a good thing.....mainly because it didn't contain high fructose corn syrup and partially hydrogenated palm oil and was still just as tastey, but that's just me! So, the cookies had the frosting going for them, but they were too crunchy. Too hard to eat. And they were way too big. Especially since they were a sandwich. So not only do you have the too hard chocolate cookie, but you have two! Make them small if you make them. Word to the wise.

Chocolate Cookie Sandwiches: http://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/cream-filled-chocolate-cookie

These weren't my favorite holiday treats by a long shot, but regardless, it's still fun to experiment and have people tell you what they think of them. I didn't even get too many tasters though, I think the cocktails did them (and me) in.

Pumpkin Roulade

I made a pumpkin roulade for Thanksgiving and despite it looking like one of the hardest desserts to make, it was actually one of the simplest....or maybe I just got lucky. You do have to be fearless though, no second guessing yourself on this one!

There really is nothing to it. I used Libby's recipe, a good standby. I like to substitute organic pumpkin instead of Libby's pumpkin, but the rest works great. You just mix everything together, poor the batter in a large (10X15in) jelly-roll (casserole pan is fine) pan, bake for the exact lower range time (not a minute more!) and immediately when you take it out of the oven, carefully flip it onto a dishtowel covered in powdered sugar. Then carefully roll it up slowly from short end to short end, using the towel to help you roll by lifting it up and curling the cake with it. If all went well it rolled up perfectly without cracking or crumbling. Let it cool for a couple hours. When it's completely cool, carefully and slowly unroll it and frost it liberally with a vanilla buttercream. Any flavor would work here though. Cinnamon? Maple? Frangelico? Whatever you think is good with pumpkin. It should be pretty sticky on the inside, like it's slightly underdone. Helps it to roll better. Then roll is back up carefully (I know....it requires a lot of redundancy) and if you like, you can pipe along the swirl to make it look a little prettier and perhaps pipe on the top. Sift on some powdered sugar and it's done! Pretty easy overall as long as you work slowly and carefully. Just go for it and if you mess it up, it still tastes the same right? And hopefully next time it will look a little better. I've never made anything like this before, I wasn't even in my own kitchen, and it went perfectly, so it can be done.

I apologize for the atrocious pictures. Collin wasn't around to take any of his amazing photos. It will have to do.

Endnote: I used organic powdered sugar for the first time in this recipe and I have to say, it was way better than regular sugar. It had this slightly different texture, way more powdery than powdered sugar and had a slight color to it. A richer cream, almost a gray, so pretty. Loved it! Give it a try! So good for the Earth...and you too!!

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Peanut Butter Brownies

So I used to say that I wasn't much of a brownie person. They usually make me a little sick due to their density and chocolatiness. I used to say this until a few weeks ago when I started making brownies like every single week. I'm not sure how this happened but ever since I made them for the AIDS Walk Bake Sale, I've been on a brownie making/eating spree. I have no regrets however. This time though, I got a recipe from my cousin Autumn for Peanut Butter Brownies and I have to say they are amazing! I cooked them exactly according to the recipe which I usually don't do (I like to put a little of myself in to the mix) and they turned out perfectly. I even cooked them for the specified bake time (10 min, turn, then 15 min more) and they were just a little underdone in the center but cooked which is perfect if you ask any brownie lover. I loved that they were peanut butter and not chocolate for a change and they didn't make me ill even though I had a huge chunk.

I do have one bone to pick with the recipe trier/blog writer however and that is with her statement that you should always use Jiff or Skippy when baking and not the all-natural kinds. Are you kidding? Please. I think I can do with a little let high fructose corn syrup in my life. Use the all natural!! If that's what you like. I used a creamy Organic peanut butter and it was amazing. If you like chunky, go for that too. But for your own health, perhaps we can find one way of reducing our corn in-take and this might just be the time. Just saying....

I love making brownies because they are SO easy and these are no exception. Seriously, give them a try. Great for parties or large groups, it makes a ton! A 9x13in pan.

Here's the recipe:

Peanut Butter Brownies

With Love and Butter
Makes 12 huge squares or 24 small ones

You have your choice here of creamy or chunky peanut butter and I used chunky. When baking with peanut butter, you almost always want to use something like Jif or Skippy, not the all-natural kind.

2 eggs
2 cups brown sugar, firmly packed
1 cup peanut butter, at room temperature
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, melted
2 tbsp. molasses
2 tbsp. honey
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 tsp. salt
2 cups flour
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375°F and move the rack to the middle position. Butter a 9×13-inch pan.

Whip the eggs and brown sugar together with an electric mixer. Add the peanut butter, melted butter, molasses, honey, vanilla, salt, and flour. Mix. Stir in 1 cup of the chocolate chips by hand.

Spread the batter evenly in the pan. Strew the remaining 1 cup of chocolate chips over the surface. Bake 10 minutes, rotate the pan, and bake 15 minutes more or until the brownies turn golden and the center is set. Cool and cut into squares.

http://danatreat.com/2009/09/holly-bs-peanut-butter-brownies/

I forgot to have Collin take photos so the ones here are not mine, but from the blog I got it from.

Enjoy!

Cinnamon Rolls

Everyone's favorite right? Pretty much.

I love making these, they are way too good! The recipe I use says they are like the cinnabon rolls and I have to agree. Delicious and yet they don't contain all the preservatives and chemicals etc. that the cinnabon one's must have in them which is a definite plus. They are also probably the easiest baked good I ever make even though you make them from absolute scratch; starting with yeast, making the dough and letting it rise. Trust me, so so easy.

I like to do things a little different though.

I can't stop myself from wanting to cream the butter and sugar and add the eggs one at a time and then add the flour alternating with the milk/yeast mixture even though they tell me to just throw all the ingredients together. I just can't. It's too engrained in me. However, last time I'm pretty sure by adding the flour stepwise with the milk/yeast it overworked the dough and caused the gluten to break down a bit....that or I over baked them....which I did. Also, don't be tempted by the bread hook for the Kitchen Aid. It didn't work. I fell for it.

In all the times I've made these babies before, I've never overbaked them. I actually tend to underbake most everything because....well, it's just better. A little chewiness goes a long way. It was tricky for me this time though for some reason. Every time I looked in the oven, the rolls looked raw....so i kept baking and kept baking. I took them out probably 5 minutes after the recommended bake time and they looked gorgeous but it's a fine line with dough. Too long in the oven is way too long. It's like an exponential curve. Same is true of batters and well anything else that is baked. So when you bake these, and I highly recommend that you do, bake them for about 10-12 mintues and no longer. I realized a great test for seeing if they are done is keep an eye on the bottom of your baking pan (I like to use a glass caserole dish) and you can see if the butter that you lightly greased the pan with is burning. Also, the rolls tend to bake through first on the bottoms and sides, where they are touching the pan. So instead of checking the tops (like I made the mistake of doing), check the sides and bottom as well. Just a hint that I think works pretty well.

Aside from bake time issues, these are a cinch to make. You just mix everything up. Yes, cream the butter and sugar and add the eggs one at a time and the milk/yeast, but then just as a cup or two of flour, until you can form a lump and transfer it to a bowl. Work in the rest of the flour with your hands. Will make for happy gluten.

Let it rise for an hour. I put a heating pad under the bowl and a towel on top to help it rise. This is especially helpful in the winter when it's not warm enough (at least in my apartment!) for the dough to rise. After it's doubled in size (I'm kind of flexible on this amount) you roll it out to about 21in by 16in. Spread with a huge amount of butter (1/3C) and a ton of cinnamon and sugar and then roll up starting from the short side. Then cut in about 1.5in sections and place them in a baking pan. Then bake for ~10 minutes.

Let cool and frost with my old standby, vanilla buttercream. You can make it as thick or thin as you want depending on preferences. I made my a little thinner this time and I really liked it on the rolls, however, I would say a thick dollop on top is probably more satisfying.

For the buttercream I always use these proportions (yes I have them memorized.....):

1/4C butter

2C powdered sugar

1tsp. vanilla

~3Tbs. heavy cream

Here is the recipe for the rolls: http://www.recipezaar.com/Cinnabon-Cinnamon-Rolls-76864>Cinnamon Rolls

Photos by Collin Monda

Pumpkin Pie (from scratch?)

After a two week long hiatus of the cake club I am back. Several weeks ago I decided to undertake the task of making a pumpkin pie from scratch, as in from a pumpkin. You are supposed to use a pie pumpkin which is a smaller, sweeter pumpkin, primarily if not solely used for making pumpkin pies. I chose to make my pie this week which as you know is the week after Halloween and despite it still be Autumn there are no pie pumpkins to be had. NONE. You would think people would still be enjoying pies the entire season and surely for Thanksgiving?! Do they take the pies away after Halloween and then bring them back again for Thanksgiving? I do not know, all I know is that I had to use a can of already cooked and pureed pumpkin. Fail. Although the rest of the pie is made form scratch, so it's not so much like cheating. I really wanted to make it from a pumpkin though. Oh well. Perhaps in a couple weeks?? Crazy grocery store. 

I made my crust the night before to save on time (great trick, it freezes and refrigerates amazingly well) and rolled it out and filled it the next night. The pie filling is always really strange to me because it's so liquidy. I always think, this is never going to gel and become firm. No way. Somehow it always does. Anyway, I was using a slightly shallower pie pan and didn't want to fill it up to the point of it was spilling all over the place when I moved it from counter to oven so I just put in enough to reach the lip and then used the leftover pie dough to make some little crusts to put in ramekins. I filled the ramekins with my leftover filling and baked the pie and little pies all together. I even had leftover dough after that and made schnittchens (had to). German tradition (or maybe just Schroeter tradition?) of taking the left over scraps of dough (schnittchen means "scrap" in German), rolling it out, spreading some butter over it, sprinkling some cinnamon and sugar, rolling them up and cutting them into little cinnamon rolls if you will. Delicious and a great way to use all of the dough. Plus, it always reminds me of my Grandpa, it's a kind of offering to him. I think he likes it. 

After about thirty minutes of baking I cut out a few leaves and acorns from the leftover leftover dough and placed them on top of my pies. Very cute. It's the little things. 

I read a recipe somewhere to make whipped cream with maple syrup to go with it and I got to say this is the best idea ever. Due to not wanting to bring whipping cream, beaters, and maple syrup to work and whipping it on my desk for group meeting, I decided to not try this delicious add-on but please do, I'm sure it's amazing! 

I would give you a recipe for the pumpkin pie but really, just use the Libby's Famous Pumpkin Pie recipe. It's the best. 

Oh but instead of using Libby's Pumpkin Puree I used an organic pumpkin puree. Just doing my part. Good for you and good for the earth! 

Photos by Collin Monda

Brown Sugar Cookies with Fleur de Sel

For Kathleen's birthday I made her new favorite cookie which is the brown sugar cookie with sea salt. For those of the savory variety and not the sweet (I am not in this camp if you haven't already noticed that) this is a great cookie for you. It is a pretty sweet cookie but it has a good deal amount of fleur de sel ("flower of salt" in french) which is a quite salty salt. So a little goes a long way. The recipe calls for a lot of sugar (mostly brown) which surprised me because even regular unsalted cookies have less sugar than these, but am not one to complain about sugar content. Another interesting component of the recipe is that it uses browned butter. Butter cooked to the point where is just starts to turn brown and right before the milk solids actually burn. Mine burned a bit (okay, I've never brown butter) but I just strained off those pesky milk solids and all was well. The browned butter I have to say is a nice touch. Adds a little extra nuttiness to the cookies (and butteriness).

The dough had a delicious molassas-y aroma and was a nice rich, nutty, brown color. I decided to split it up into three different cookies. One with pinch of fleur de sel on top, ones rolled in a mixture of brown and white sugar (what the recipe called for) and ones that I piped on the letters of happy birthday and then dredged in salt. So all camps were accounted for. The recipe called for the cookies to be pulled out when the inside was still a bit raw which is what I normally do (makes for a very chewy cookie-my fav) but this time, every time I would check on the cookies they still seemed far from done until I decided to pull them out and they looked great but turned out to be a bit on the crunchy/done side. So, don't go with your instincts on this one, just pull them out when they are raw, after about 12 minutes. The cookies, aside from texture were delicious. I love brown sugar. Who doesn't? The salt was a nice addition and for those that enjoy a little more savoriness in their lives than sweet, this is a nice treat for you.

Here's the recipe I used:

http://noshwithme.com/2009/01/brown-sugar-cookies/

This recipe is identical to the one that made this type of cookie Kathleen's new favorite, except salt is added to the sugar mixture the dough balls are rolled in. Perhaps a nice medium between camps?

Happy Birthday Kathleen!

Photos by Collin Monda

Whiskey Apple Pie

I finally have acquired the skills to make pastry dough. Triumph! Ok, it's a piece of cake (pie?) if you have a Cuisinart and as far as I'm concerned there is no other way. I can not even begin to imagine how people made/make pastry dough without one. I tried, believe me, with the Tarte Normande and it was something similar to a disaster. Sure it looked ok, but it just wasn't right in any capacity. I felt like I had offended Julia and perhaps she rolled over in her grave. It was close to a shamful experience. A bit dramatic, but in comparison to my Cuisinart dough, you would understand. The Cuisinart makes the perfect, buttery dough that just barely holds together but doesn't crumble out of control and is silky smooth. Just like Julia told me. Well mashing chunks of butter into flour with your warm thumbs trying to keep your palms out of it doesn't exactly work the same as a high speed blade slicing the butter into tiny little particles perfectly mixed and in a nice equilibrium with the dough. If you don't have a Cuisinart, get one, somehow. I borrowed (took) my mom's but I'm guessing they have old ones (which are perfectly good believe me! That's what I'm using) on ebay or second hand at a shop. The new ones are a bit pricey, but sweet jesus are they beautiful.

www.cuisinart.com

Anyway, somehow acquire a Cuisinart and you can make any pie. Guaranteed. Ok, enough with my shameless promotion of the Cuisinart food processors, but seriously, it made all the difference for me. Once you have the perfect dough, your pie has pretty much made itself.

When I was home in Portland my cousin Nici and I got a lesson from the pie/Cuisinart masters (my mom and cousin Autumn). 

The first trick given by Autumn is to mix half the amount of butter called for (usually one stick, a healthy amount) into your flour as well as the remaining amount in the form of Crisco. Yum, I know, but really, it makes all the difference. Makes it flakey and buttery and perfect. Keep the Crisco in the freezer (it won't freeze......yea I know). It just keeps it that much colder and really what else would you be using Crisco for? Hopefully nothing. 

So once you've got your flour and butter/crisco equilibrium after a few pulses of the food processor then you slowly (slowly!) add ice water (yes, ice in the water) in a steady stream until......now this is where the masters differ. I chose sides. Sorry. Until.....the dough JUST forms a ball. NOT when it's rolling around in there in one big lump. You've gone too far at that point and the gluten starts to break down. Bad for pastry dough. So, add it until it just forms a dough. Others say when it just starts to form big chunks but not to the point of a ball. So, try it out and see what you prefer. I like the ball because those extra few seconds make the dough that much easier to roll out and manage, but it doesn't make all that big of difference. Choose whichever side you like. 

Once your dough forms a ball, divide it in two if you've made a double recipe (typical when making pies with a top) and wrap it up in saran wrap (mom says wax paper) and form a ball, then smash it into a disc  and refrigerate it for as long as you see fit (I do an hour). While you're waiting, whip up your filling. I did an apple pie made with whiskey. I kind of merged two recipes so here is my little summery of the frankenstein I made (a delicious one at that). So follow the recipe below but disregard the part about the steps in making the filling and just use the ingredient amounts and listen to me. 

Apple Pie Recipe

So mix all the ingredients together except for the whiskey and vanilla (I know, it's not listed). 

Probably the most important part of this, besides the whiskey is that you should use Honeycrisp apples if you can get your hands on them. They are abundant in the fall and are hands down THE BEST APPLES. To eat. And to bake with. Delicious! Always firm and crisp and never mealy. Juicy and amazing. So use them! It will make your pie that much better. 

Ok, that said, place your peeled, cored, and sliced apple and sugar etc. mixture in a sauce pan and simmer on a lowish-medium. This forces most of the liquid out of the apples so it doesn't all end up in your pie and overflow all over the oven. Makes for a soupy pie and the fire alarm going off. No good. So cook them for about 5-10 minutes. While your waiting, take your pie dough (after an hour)  and roll it out on a silicon pad (if you have it-so much easier!) and then transfer it to your pie plate. It's easy to just kind of flip it into the pie plate if you get under the dough  a bit, or you can fold it in quarters and then lay it in the plate and unfold it. Crimp the edges and trim off the dough hanging over. Mix in two tsp. of vanilla and one teaspoon of whiskey (a bourbon whiskey like Makers or Knob Creek) in to the apple mixture. The whisky and vanilla make such an impact on the flavor of the pie it's kind of incredible. When I did this myself I added the whisky before I cooked down the apples and I think it cooked out the liquor (for shame!). So wait, till they are already cooked to add it. 

Put your partially cooked apples in the pie crust and add about half the liquid. Put the pot with the rest of the liquid back on the stove to simmer for another five or so minutes until carmely. Roll out the other half of your dough and cut into strips (using a crimper to do this looks so pretty). Starting with the edge place one strip vertically and another horizontally and keep moving in a diagonal until you reach the opposite corner, if a circle had a corner. Then rub some butter on the top of your lattice dough and sprinkle with some raw sugar (or whatever you have). Not too much, just enough to make it a bit sparkly. You can also do cookie cutter shapes or nothing. Up to you.

Bake for about an hour. Drizzle with the reduced carmel sauce and let cool for several hours. Must be served with vanilla ice cream. It just has to. 

It's pretty and oh so good and not too hard to make right? There are a lot of steps but really, once you can make the crust, like I said, the pie just makes itself. 

Enjoy!

Any excuse to drink while you eat is an excuse I can get behind. 

Me triumphant. Pastry dough "mastered". 

Photos by Collin Monda and Autumn Webring

Pumpkin Cookies

I recently made pumpkin cookies, a very appropriate fall dessert. I usually love them but since last fall, I found them to be a bit on the sweet side this time. I think I may not be used to the copious amounts of buttercream I put on anything I can this time around, so next time I probably will add just a bit. The cookies are subtly sweet, much like pumpkin pie, so a little frosting is nice, but a little goes a long way. These cookies are a cinch to make and don't take much time at all so I'd definitely recommend giving them a try. Also, one cookie is more than satisfying to any sweet tooth so you wont feel too guilty around the holiday dessert table. Admittedly, one probably isn't that healthy, but still, having only one will make you feel good about yourself! I like to add a touch of cinnamon to the top for affect, but you could do nutmeg or any fall-like spice. 

Here's the recipe I use:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/iced-pumpkin-cookies-recipe/index.html

Photo by Collin Monda